Legal analysts are warning that Meta plans to revise its commercial terms of service so that business accounts must permit the company to train artificial‑intelligence models on any website content they link to, not just the posts shared on Meta platforms. The change is set to take effect on October 30, and it does not include an opt‑out option. Companies that refuse to allow Meta’s bots to crawl their linked material would be urged to discontinue using Meta’s services.
According to Nieman Lab, the amendment will apply to all business accounts, but it is especially concerning for news publishers. Those outlets could otherwise seek licensing payments that might run into the millions for Meta’s ongoing use of their articles in AI training. At present, news organizations are engaged in a legal dispute with OpenAI over whether using their content without a license qualifies as fair use. Meta’s proposed terms appear to grant the company broad permission to use such content regardless of how the courts eventually rule.